“I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
She felt his tension, his stillness. She gazed down at her tightly clenched fists where they rested on her thighs, her belly fluttering with nerves.
“What if I can’t let you go?” he asked finally.
Her eyes flew to his, and the expression in their amber depths took her breath away.
“What if I can’t let you go?” He repeated softly, moving to stand over her where she sat with her feet tucked beneath her bottom. The tips of her tiny breasts peeked between the long cascading waves of fiery red hair that was her only protection from his scorching gaze.
She tore her soft green eyes from his, her heart racing madly. “You – you have to,” she whispered.
“Have to?” He inquired, placing a gentle finger beneath her chin and titling her head back. There was no escaping those dark amber eyes that seemed to burn through her to the core.
“You can’t keep me locked in here, like this, forever,” she murmured huskily.
“I adore you like this,” he said softly. His fingers swept back the fall of silky hair behind a creamy shoulder, sending shivers down her spine. "Soft and sweet and defenseless. Like a new born kitten."
She quivered as his eyes flicked over her, her soft plump thighs, the gentle swell of her belly and the tiny thrust of her rosy-tipped breasts that seemed to swell and tighten beneath his gaze.
“Ah, Bella, do not ask me to let you go. I do not have it in me to deny myself the exquisite pleasure of your sweet body, the way it clenches around my cock as I plunder your delicious pussy, so wet and tight, as though it were made for my possession.”
She had to bite her lip to prevent the whimper from escaping her as he crouched down before her, his long fingers trailing down over her shoulder to find a pouting nipple. She shuddered as he gently rubbed it with the pad of his thumb.
“How can I let you go when the mere thought of you makes me hard.” He caught a tiny fist in his palm, compelling the fingers to uncurl before he brought it up hard against him where he strained the seam of his breeches. He groaned as her fingers instinctively flexed around the swollen ridge of flesh.
She quivered as his fingers trailed down the valley between her breasts to lazily circle her belly button before slipping down into the tight niche between her thighs.
He groaned as his fingers found her dampness. “Little one, even now your body begs to be plundered.”
“N-no,” she gasped huskily, dragging her hand from beneath his as though burnt. "No more.”
“No?” he queried as his finger found the hidden jewel nestled between her thighs. Her eyelids fluttered close as he stroked her there, her thighs yielding slighting to the pressure exerted by his hand as he sought even deeper between them.
Her breath came in a shuddery jerk as a finger slid up inside of her.
“No,” she whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut as her traitorous body melted beneath the knowing touch as he swirled the finger inside of her.
“Oh,” she gasped, her hips arching as another finger entered her there.
A frown creased her brow as his fingers withdrew. Before she knew what was happening she found herself toppled back onto the soft fur rug, the momentum causing her knees to splay in the air as the breath rushed from her lungs.
"Leonn," she husked as he moved swiftly to kneel between her thighs, yanking them even wider apart.
“We both know your body is unable to deny me anything.”
Her body clenched as the warm pad of his fingers walked up over her belly, to cup her tender breast.
“So sweetly responsive,” he whispered as he leaned over to swirl his tongue over a rosy tip before drawing it deep into his mouth. Her back arched as his teeth gently rasped her there.
“No,” she cried, her small fists pushing against broad shoulders. She whimpered as his hands captured hers, forcing them up over her head. She lay there panting beneath him as his mouth sought her other peak.
“Oh,” she moaned, feeling moistness seep between her thighs as he tenderly sucked on her nipples. “I…stop,” she gasped. She knew what he was doing, trying to use her traitorous body against her, but she had to fight him.
When eventually he let go of her wrists to reach for the laces of his breeches, she used the fleeting opportunity to draw her legs up and press her knees against his shoulders with all her might. It shouldn’t have worked, her strength miniscule compared to his, but he had been unprepared for her resistance. She had rolled quickly onto her side and started scrambling up on to her hands before he reacted. She squeaked as an arm snaked between her thighs, clasping the soft flesh and dragging her back toward him.
The rug slid beneath her as he tugged her down into his lap, and her hand closed over his, trying to pry his fingers from where they clutched her intimately. His other arm clamped around her hips like a steel vice, and she slapped at both of them. “I hate you,” she cried, trying to wiggle off of him, but he only chuckled at he attempts to escape him.
“Do you really?” he asked teasingly against her ear, and she froze on top of him when she felt the effect her struggles had on him.
“You – you pig,” she muttered, and pinched him on the thigh. He didn’t even have the decency to flinch.
“Tut, tut. So my sweet Bella has a temper underneath that demure exterior.”
The breath caught in her throat as a thick finger probed the slick entrance of her pussy.
“Leonn…”
A low moan escaped her as his finger slid up inside of her while the fingers of his other hand caressed the soft skin of her belly where they held her firm on his lap.
Soon his finger eased in and out of her, generating an exquisite friction in her clutching pussy that had her writhing on his lap.
“Even now you would beg me to take you.” He pressed a kiss against her temple as his finger eased out of her. “But I can wait.”
“W-what?” She gasped as he gently shifted her off of his lap onto the rug and rose to his feet. She was rosy and damp from her exertions as she gazed up at him in confusion.
“I will wait until you are ready to come to me of your own free will.” His voice, gravelly and deep, was filled with an underlying seriousness that stole her breath away. She had seen his forceful nature as he molded her untutored body to his fierce sexual demands, his anger and possessiveness, yet never had she witnessed this side of him. Even dazed with desire she realised something about him had changed. He seemed softer somehow, less fierce, although his eyes still burned bright with lust.
“I will send up a selection of gowns to be at your disposal until a designer from Paris can be arranged.” Wide green eyes followed his progress as he strode to the door of the chamber, only pausing briefly to glance over at her tumbled disarray. “My castle is yours to use as you wish.”
He left the chamber door slightly open, and she heard his light footfalls on the winding stone steps slowly fade. She was still sitting there, staring off into space as she tried to comprehend his actions, when a maid arrived with an armful of pretty petticoats and gowns. Bella discovered that her name was Mina, and she was to be her lady’s maid.
She felt uncomfortable as the maid dressed her, remaining silent as the young girl chatted freely as her small hands smoothed the lacy chemise over her slender body and tied the ribbons of her petticoats around her waist before lowering the gown over her up-stretched arms.
The feel of cloth against her skin for the first time in eons felt peculiar where it rubbed against her hard nipples, and painfully restrictive after the freedom of bare flesh.
She had never felt so confused and unsure as when she took her first steps from her prison a little while later. Leonn was an enigma, a puzzle she didn’t have all the pieces to, but at least she had known what he wanted of her until then. He had stolen her virginity and relentlessly taken her with the single intention of planting his bastard in her belly as a means of revenge against her father. Had he guessed that she was late? Is that why he allowed her more freedom, because he no longer thought he needed to force himself on her? Did he plan to be rid of her soon?
* * *
“I thought I might find you here.”
Lost deep in thought as she sat on the narrow stone bench in the heart of the walled garden she had only seen from her window, Bella was startled by the deep voice. Sunset had fallen hours ago, yet she was content to sit outside, uncaring of time slipping by as she listened to the sounds of animals going about their nightly rituals. She felt alive again, no longer closed off from the world.
He must have sensed some of her thoughts as she turned her head slowly to gaze up at him where he stood just behind her shoulder, and she could have sworn she saw a flicker of regret in those amber depths. She looked away, smoothing the violet silk over her knees apprehensively as she waited for him to speak.
She shivered as fingers slid though her silky mane and his mouth pressed against the nape of her neck.
“You’re exquisite,” he breathed, his fingers trailing over her shoulder, to delve down under her bodice to capture a soft breast beneath her chemise.
She made a noise like a kitten as his teeth gently closed over her ear lobe, the sensual tugging generating a similar sensation between her thighs.
“I want to take you right now, exactly as you are,” he murmured against her ear as his fingers teased her nipple to a hard peak. “I want to push your skirts up and spread you soft thighs wide as I thrust into your tight pussy. Are you wet for me?”
Her heart raced as he straddled the large bench to kneel before her, gazing up into her expressive face as his large palms easily found her slippered feet beneath the layers of silk and lace. She bit her lip, knowing that if he were to lift her skirts and petticoats he would discover the dewy moistness at her core.
His fingers stole up over her calves to the sensitive underside of her knees. “I’ve been standing there watching you, wondering how it would feel to take you fully clothed.” She gasped as his hands curled around her knees and quickly jerked them apart.
“Y-you can’t, not here,” she whispered in shocked fascination as fingers teased along her inner thigh. “Someone might see.”
It was his husky laughter that made her realise how inviting her words sounded.
“I mean –“ Her thoughts were muddled as his other hand slowly pushed up her skirts.
